# People Who Don't Know the Difference - What should we, as a society, do with them? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 3, 2009, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-the-difference-what-should-we-as-a-society-do-with-them/516137 "2009-11-03T05:15:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-the-difference-what-should-we-as-a-society-do-with-them/516137/21 "2009-11-04T18:08:37Z")
hmmm… 'tis true. You learn something new everyday. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-the-difference-what-should-we-as-a-society-do-with-them/516137/22 "2009-11-04T18:08:40Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > Feminine and masculine are not genders, they are adjectives. A person may have a male gender and be feminine or a female gender and be masculine. A friend of mine is a transsexual man who performs as a drag queen. His gender is male, but he’s mighty feminine at times. And that’s just an extreme example - there are plenty of people who are comfortably male or female but do not follow that gender’s socially assigned roles of feminine or masculine. Dude, get a dictionary. There’s no such thing as a “male gender”. It seems you’re one of the people to which the OP refers. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-the-difference-what-should-we-as-a-society-do-with-them/516137/23 "2009-11-04T18:12:58Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > From a sociological perspective, there has to be a difference. As a sociologist (who teaches courses on gender), I have a big “meh” reaction to this. As far as I can tell, the relationship between biology (sex) and culture (gender) is pretty damn murky. Distinguishing between sex and gender is a useful pedagogical tool, but in practice, it’s next to impossible to cleanly separate them. Biology and culture interact with one another to create both sex and gender. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-the-difference-what-should-we-as-a-society-do-with-them/516137/24 "2009-11-04T18:17:31Z")
> [@BetsQ](#): > > As a sociologist (who teaches courses on gender), I have a big “meh” reaction to this. As far as I can tell, the relationship between biology (sex) and culture (gender) is pretty damn murky. Distinguishing between sex and gender is a useful pedagogical tool, but in practice, it’s next to impossible to cleanly separate them. Biology and culture interact with one another to create both sex and gender. I don’t mean that you have to separate them. I mean that there has to be two words to describe them. If you call both biological and sociological terms “gender”, it’s impossible to have a clear conversation. One guy could say “these people reject their gender” and you could have some asking “So they want sex changes?” and some asking “so they cross-dress?” It’s hard to tell exactly what the guy is saying. And how exactly does culture influence sex? ---
**Author:** ![Sebastienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Sebastienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sebastienne)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-the-difference-what-should-we-as-a-society-do-with-them/516137/25 "2009-11-04T18:23:53Z")
Sex is determined by what’s between your legs, gender is determined by what’s between your ears. Sex can also be short for “sexual intercourse” and gender can also be an attribute words have, even though words don’t have sex. In either sense. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-the-difference-what-should-we-as-a-society-do-with-them/516137/26 "2009-11-04T18:29:21Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Dude, get a dictionary. There’s no such thing as a “male gender”. It seems you’re one of the people to which the OP refers. No, you’re right, I meant to say man and woman, not male and female. But my main point was that masculine and feminine are not genders. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-the-difference-what-should-we-as-a-society-do-with-them/516137/27 "2009-11-04T22:09:54Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > But my main point was that masculine and feminine are not genders. If one is talking about grammar, they certainly are. ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-the-difference-what-should-we-as-a-society-do-with-them/516137/28 "2009-11-04T23:25:44Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > I say string them up… > > Folks, “gender” is NOT a fancy word meaning “sex”. > > Female and Male are sexes > Feminine and Masculine are genders. > There’s a difference. > Thank you Since when? According to M-W, gender is synonymous with sex Main Entry: 1gen·der Pronunciation: \ˈjen-dər Function: noun Etymology: Middle English gendre, from Anglo-French genre, gendre, from Latin gener-, genus birth, race, kind, gender — more at kin Date: 14th century 1 a : a subclass within a grammatical class (as noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb) of a language that is partly arbitrary but also partly based on distinguishable characteristics (as shape, social rank, manner of existence, or sex) and that determines agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms b : membership of a word or a grammatical form in such a subclass c : an inflectional form showing membership in such a subclass 2 a : sex \ b : the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-the-difference-what-should-we-as-a-society-do-with-them/516137.md?page=1)